Financial Crisis – Finally flying in the right direction after a windless night

We spent the night in a windless hole with a 2-3 knots current dragging us
west, we can only blame lack of research and preparation for not knowing
about this adverse river in our way, i guess everyone had to cross it but
we certainly got the worst of it as we had no wind at all to reach the
other side of the stream. In the morning the wind finally filled, we
initially hoisted the A2 masthead spinnaker, but quickly the wind clocked
to the south west and the angle was too shy. The weather forecast shows we
should be sailing in 15 knots of wind in reality we have 25 gusting 35, so
we put the smallest spinnaker, the A5 and 2 reefs in the main, we have
been flying all day and progress is good.

I am slowly finding my sea legs and after some food and a good sleep I
feel better but the thought that there simply is nothing around us till
the finish line apart from a few inhospitable islands sometimes catches me
unaware and the feeling of apprehension returns which i think is pretty
normal if one day you dine with steak and beer and the next you are flying
at over 20 knots in the middle of an expanse of wild waters… we did 22.1
earlier, not far from the boat’s best ever at 23.2, and we have only just
started!

Last night windless hole cost us lots of miles, our route was almost
comical if you were in the mood for laughter, so we are already playing
catch up, we would like to rejoin our friends on Phesheya, I think i could
do with a little company around here!!!

All good on board otherwise, the sail damage of the second night has been
attended to, it required just a few stitches, and last night before sunset
Hugo climbed the mast to retrieve the halyard we had lost.

Posted by: firstclass